All Articles / Marketing
All Articles / Marketing

5 mins with Despina Karatzias, Digital & Social Media Marketing Trainer

 

1. Why do you love digital marketing?

What’s not to love?!

Digital marketing has been instrumental in changing the way we do business.

Regardless of being a small, medium or a large organisation the opportunity to connect, engage, grow and build loyal communities through the use of digital and social media marketing initiatives is endless.

As an unofficial small business advocate, I also love that an effective digital marketing strategy can be implemented and be responsible for producing great results irrespective of the size, or the budget that may or may not be available, especially when starting out.

Most of all I love that ALL of our marketing initiatives are measurable when done digitally. That is not to say there is no room for traditional marketing but as a numbers geek, I have always loved that I can attribute metrics directly to my investment in time, money and effort when I execute a digital or social media marketing campaign.

2. Your best tip for staying motivated when studying?

  • Set goals for your desired date of completing your study then chunk it down to small tasks to avoid overwhelm.
  • In simple terms, if study is not scheduled it will not get done. Consistency is key.
  • If you carve out your study time in your diary on a Sunday or the beginning of the week your chances of doing the work significantly increases as opposed to waiting for the stars to align. We have students working full-time, running a business, have small children/family responsibilities and some all of the above hence more important than ever to schedule time in advance.

3. Advice for students wanting to get into a digital marketing role?

Don’t wait to finish to start applying for roles and applying your knowledge!

There are thousands of businesses and charity, not for profit organisations that need help with their marketing.

Use your new digital knowledge and offer your services to a business or not for profit organisation pro bono to start with that may not be able to afford a digital marketing expert will help the business and help you build a portfolio.

In any field of learning, volunteering your time and knowledge is a great way to test your knowledge, build your confidence and make a difference.

I’ve lost count of how many charity organisations I have helped set up their social networks and digital marketing strategy. Not only is it rewarding knowing you have a skill that can help produce significant outcomes to an organisation, you also have the opportunity to meet some great people along the way!

4. The craziest project you’ve worked on in your career?

My craziest would be suggesting that we should do live broadcast interviews using Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at the Victorian Tourism Awards event which is host to 1,000 participants from across the state of Victoria and renowned as the ‘logies of Tourism’!

Everyone looked at me perplexed as to what I meant and how it would work so I started to share my vision of how we could engage and inspire the hundreds of tourism experiences that are not familiar with the awards and are not there via live broadcasting by interviewing actual winners in real-time at the event.

In the end, they loved the idea but would proceed on the condition that I execute it and be the presenter to hold the interviews, gulp!!

This was in 2016 and no other state had done such a thing. I was so incredibly nervous but it worked and as predicted engagement on these social pages went through the roof and broke social media records for this event.

Interestingly it also carved out a new career path for me as a ‘Social Media Presenter’ and I have conducted numerous live broadcast interviews and coverage at various events around the country – bonus!

It taught me to back myself, and to break some rules and experiment with new ideas.

 

Considering a career in digital marketing? Check out our courses here, or call us on 1300 738 955 for a chat about your next career move.

Any questions? Ask away!